Reduce, Reuse, Refill- apothecary 19’s innovative refillable candle

Sustainable, eco-friendly, no waste. So many of us are trying to do our part and help the planet. Often the conversation about being eco-friendly or sustainable revolves around packaging. Sometimes the conversation becomes about sustainable or locally sourced ingredients.  But this time the conversation is about a refillable candle.

Apothecary 19 is a small batch self care company.  I met Lindy Spurgeon while shopping at a craft fair last summer. The conversation was light and easy, revolving around favorite books and candles.  Lindy is a huge fan of books and has her own line of officially licensed bookish candles. So what is a bookish candle?  She shared “My officially licensed candles are scents inspired by the characters of certain books. They’re ‘officially licensed' because I have licensing rights from the author and/or publishing house. As a creative, I think it is important to not borrow the work of others without permission or compensation.”

As I purchased some candles for my home, Lindy shared that she was working on something new. “I’m working on making a wax refill for my jars.” Wait, what? This had my attention, and I was intrigued. 

She continued, “I really, really hate waste, and spending money on something that will ultimately end up in the trash. I also began to notice that some of my repeat customers were buying 4-6 candles an order. I could only imagine, if I was in their shoes, what I would do with my jars once the candles burnt out and wondered if they had some candle jar graveyard in a closet somewhere because they didn’t want to throw them away. So I built a resource page on my website that instructs folks on how to clean the jar and what they might use it for. There are actually quite a few great uses since I use a fairly heavy, high quality ceramic jar for my large candles. The jars are a great minimalist design that will match any space, so reusing them is a great option, but they’re also heavy. For my international customers, it makes the overall cost quite high due to the shipping rates. Which got me thinking, there has to be a way to offer refills. 

I brainstormed all of the ways I thought it would be possible. I did some research to see if something like it already existed and what would be my best option forward. I knew one thing for certain, I didn’t want my customers to have to make anything, and I was unwilling to compromise on the quality they’d come to expect. My friend Ken is an engineer and had helped me with a few other production issues earlier in the year so I enlisted his help and we quickly came up with a plan. I was hopeful it would be as easy as 3D printing a mold of my jar, but the filament can’t withstand the temperatures of the hot wax. So we quickly learned that we’d need to figure out a way to make something out of resin or silicone.”

Lindy and I continued to talk over the next several months about the process. Any time you are innovating in a production technology capacity, there is a lot of trial and error. There will be roadblocks and setbacks. The innovation is happening while you still have your normal business to run. 

She shared “It took quite a few tries to get it right. My jars are a fairly consistent size, but they’re slipcast and mass produced so there are variations from one jar to another. The part that holds the wax isn’t a straight cylinder. Some jars are slightly larger or smaller than others. We had to first find the right size for the wax refill that would drop in and then reverse engineer a mold for that blank. After roughly six months of tests, production runs, and customer testing and feedback, we finally had a viable product. 

I launched the candle refills on February 9th with only 24 available. They sold out within an hour. I was very clear with customers about what to expect in terms of production time and such. I have a wonderful customer base that is happy to wait patiently. I am very grateful for that as it lets me work out the kinks in real-time.” Now that the refills are available, it begs the question of how will this fit into her product mix going forward?

“Now that I have done the first run, Ken and I are working to make more molds. The additional molds will let me have some that are ready to ship for my more popular scents. I hope to have all of those details ironed out by May 2024. They won’t be available at markets or pop-ups, but I do let local folks pre-order for my in-person events. Since I won’t have them at markets, I do have an insert I add to my bags that let’s folks know how to order them.”

Innovating on any product production process requires a lot of time and effort. But that journey can be worth it when it allows you to expand upon what you are already making and even more deeply engage a loyal customer base. 

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